Muskingum County Coroner Meets With County Commissioners

ZANESVILLE, Ohio – The Muskingum County Coroner reviewed the office’s overall budget with County Commissioners today.

The meeting highlighted two specific reasons for the strain on the budget, the increase in suicides and the increase of drug overdose deaths. Dr. Charles Feicht spoke about a toxicology test that they use to obtain saliva that gives a full report of all substances of abuse.

“We use this because it saves money in evaluating drug overdose deaths a lot and so when something appears to be a clear-cut drug overdose death with no mystery and no drama we will confirm that death with this toxicologic analysis,” Dr. Feicht said.

Once they swab saliva they send it to a lab in Pittsburgh to have it tested and it helps avoid an autopsy which is unlikely to reveal any useful information. Dr. Feicht said meetings like this are very important.

“These are the taxpayer’s dollars. These are money that the county is responsible to send and that budget is under pressure. So we want to cooperate with the commissioners in every way possible to control those costs,” Dr. Feicht said.

They discussed how it is challenging to know what the budget really is for next year because they do not know how many autopsies will be performed. There will be another meeting scheduled with County Commissioners again at the beginning of the year to discuss the budget further.